Ex-Man United star compares Fernandes to Ronaldo & Cantona

Former Manchester United star Darren Fletcher has compared Bruno Fernandes’ mentality to Cristiano Ronaldo and Eric Cantona.

Fernandes, who captained the Red Devils in Tuesday night’s 2-1 win over Paris Saint-Germain, had the bottle to score a penalty at a retake after missing his initial effort in the game.

The 26-year-old had VAR to thank for that timely intervention when video replays showed Keylor Navas deviated from his goal-line before the United man struck his spot-kick.

Even so, it was the second time in as many games that Fernandes had missed from 12 yards. Nerves naturally would’ve kicked in by that point. But to his credit, the midfielder kept his cool to send Navas in the opposite direction for his second penalty.

27 – Since his debut for Man Utd in February, Bruno Fernandes has been directly involved in more goals in all competitions than any other Premier League player (27 – 16 goals, 11 assists). Captain. pic.twitter.com/Pz9bhzolGh

— OptaJoao (@OptaJoao) October 21, 2020

That unwavering belief he showed in Paris left Fletcher impressed, with the Scot comparing it to his old United teammate Ronaldo and club icon Cantona.

“It is not a great penalty the first one, it goes too close to the goalkeeper, he goes back to his hop, skip and jump, but credit to him,” Fletcher told BT Sport.

“He’s the captain, and that could easily be an Eric Cantona or Cristiano Ronaldo, somebody having that belief in themselves that they missed a penalty at the weekend and missed a penalty there.

“But there was only one person taking that penalty there and that was Bruno Fernandes.”

After Anthony Martial’s own goal brought PSG back on level terms, Marcus Rashford fired home United’s winner three minutes from time to begin their Group H campaign in the Champions League with three points.

Next up for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side is Chelsea at Old Trafford on Saturday in the Premier League.